UKC

Has France lifted its 'voluntary quarantine'? 

I can't find a reference to this online.

In other words, is arriving in France by car from the the UK using ferry or tunnel at all problematic?

I'd be grateful to hear of anyone's recent experience.

Thanks in advance.

Hi 

France always said it would do as other's did to them, so there is no quarantine, I have three separate groups of friend arrive in the last few days an no one was asked or told about needing to quarantine.

That said there seams to be a be of a come back for the virus, mainly in the north of france, but I have heard of a few campsites in the south having to shut.

cheers 

You are fine at the moment. 

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france/entry-requirements

Thanks again to both of you for that information.

The spreading of the virus is on the rise again, for instance the reproduction number has reached 2.68 in Brittany which is extremely worrying. Coming now and more generally traveling across borders is perhaps not a very clever move is it?

We had to get to Toulouse and back recently by car ... no problems at all though at the time we had to isolate on arrival (and on the return to the UK). This has recently changed as others have said.

Eurotunnel on the way out was a little frustrating but fine coming back.

I drove through France 3 weeks ago. Filled in my Certificate and my Attestation as did my two passengers. 

No-one even looked at them.  It probably helped that I said I was in transit but there was no way of checking if I was lying.

Coming back I was asked in Dover if I'd filled in my Quarantine form. I showed it on my phone and without even looking at it I was waved through. No-one had checked that I have been quarantining.

Difficult to see why your post earned so many dislikes; presumably it can't be the warning about Brittany and its infection rate so it must be your general comment about crossing borders. 

Yes. I took the Eurostar on the 11th and returned yesterday. No quarantine in France, just a form to fill in on your return to the UK

This link shows the current restrictions in all EU countries.

https://reopen.europa.eu/en

Or perhaps it was the way he worded the end of the post: ".....not a very clever move is it?" Sounds just a little patronising, don't you think? But that's the trouble with forum posts - you can't hear the tone of voice (or the accent).

Guess I'm a bit bitter to see how quickly everyone - especially climbers - went back to their old ways like nothing happened these past months. I was apalled to see various Belgian, Dutch and German climbers cars in Font on the very day the borders opened for them (June 12 or something like that). I mean, really? Was kinda hoping people would perhaps relocalize somewhat their hobbies, be a bit less careless and think about what mobility is acceptable, both in terms of health and the environment. (And that's not a stab at foreigners, we're also doing very well in the carelessness department this side of the Channel.) I'd find it hard to swallow if I was once again deprived from my freedom of climbing and cycling on my own because others weren't willing to change their frenzied lifestyle, though I'm not very optimistic.

If the rules allow you to turn up on a given date it's a bit rich to then be annoyed at people acting within the rules. 

You anger should be directed to whoever made the decision for that date if you think it's a problem.

There are aspects of how people have returned to normality that I find deeply troubling.

But bouldering outdoors if you take suitable precautions should be very low risk.

There are plenty of options to purchase food with limited/no contact and there are accommodation options that should be very low risk. The aspect of a Font trip that would concern me the most would be the tunnel/ferry. Other than that, my risk of transmission/infection if I traveled to Font should be negligible, just like it should be at home.

Couldn't agree more - regarding Covid, of course, but perhaps even more regarding the environment. The climate crisis really seems to have become yesterday's news

We have been in France since before lockdown, I would say things have bounced back to 90+% of normal. Pretty much everywhere is open, and tourists, at least those spending money, are very welcome.

Face masks are pretty much the norm as is social distancing - the French just seem to get it,

Chris

The onus is on all of us to think about our actions and our lifestyles. Just because you can legally do something doesn't mean you should - no one's preventing me from buying an SUV and driving 50,000 miles a year, but should I do it? I don't know about the UK but here many people (common people and tabloid experts alike) complained about the government being patronizing and treating us like children and said we could very well take care of ourselves and be responsible. Well, looks like we've missed an opportunity to prove the government wrong.

@SDM

It's not bouldering outdoors I have a problem with, it's rushing to go back to how things were before, when during the lockdown there was a lot of talk about the "new world" and how we could do things differently, not driving insane distances at every opportunity but rediscovering our more or less immedate surroundings. In terms of the virus climbers maybe aren't the biggest vectors but I think it's easy to fall in the trap of convincing oneself that we do everything right and others do everything wrong, when it's possibly more a case of everyone doing some things wrong. (Besides it's not like there's no climbing in the UK, and I for one would much much rather be "enjoying" the British summer climate than another dry, all grass is yellow summer here.) Plus, while I didn't go to any potentially busy area recently social distancing must have been really tricky during the insanely busy June weekends (though May was on another level, indescribable).

Looking at the situation globally, it's obvious that we're in it for a second round, so I just think it's a bit irresponsible to travel long distances right now, but beyond that I think it's a shame more people don't see this as an opportunity to think about mobility.

Edit: masks are mandatory starting today in enclosed public spaces, but in my experience they were far from the norm. Last time I went to the dairy I was the only one wearing a mask, but maybe things are different because people living in the countryside feel protected from the virus.

I agree.  But what is more troubling is the fact that humans always think they are intelligent rational individual beings.  In fact, it's more likely that humans are each just a big bunch of independent selfish and "thoughtless" processes.  Each process competing for whatever is its responsibility or target aim.  No single mind is in control.  The sooner that is appreciated and accepted the better humanity will be.

Condor Ferries are considering stopping going to St.Malo because of this. As they're owned by Brittany Ferries now I suspect they may also stop, or at least move to a freight only service.  The ferry companies cannot risk losing their crews to the virus.

I'm not making any comment on your main argument about international travel, but I would like to point out that the "R is [an impossibly precise number above one] in [insert region of Europe here]" headlines since the lockdowns have generally been a load of rubbish.

What happens is a region might discover say 100 cases one day and 200 the next. The journos then do the type of statistical analysis that would fail a pre-GCSE test and rush to crow that R is above one. However another day later cases might be 50 and the overall trend is for the average to keep declining or stay basically flat at a low level. This spawned repeated sensationalist headlines about Germany shortly after lockdown and again with the UK despite (so far) no sustained rise in cases.

I'd bet a large proportion of your dislikes came from quoting R to 2dp, regardless of the merits of your main point...

Amazing how there's a genuine surge in European corona cases as soon as I post that...

Probably best to just write off all international travel in 2020 and think of all the CO2 savings.

Interested to hear why you think the tunnel is high risk? Ferry yeah, plane  - not in a million years,  but sat in your own car for half an hr, and don't use the terminal.....not sure where the risk is?

I agree the onus is on us to think about our actions, however there's a growing contingent who seem to think that their assessment of the situation is correct any everyone else is acting irresponsibly. Either people must be allowed to make their own decision or you are pro Government intervention (or you get this weird hybrid that we have now). 

You're in an enclosed train carriage with limited ventilation with about 5(?) other cars (so could be more than 20 people) for about an hour.

It would be the only time on the entire trip that I would be spending prolonged periods of time indoors with other people.

But they're in their cars and you're in yours. No different from sitting in a traffic jam if you ask me. Only difference is you're getting somewhere.

The airflow when in a traffic jam outdoors is nothing like the airflow in an enclosed carriage. You being in your car isn't offering much protection when you all have to keep your windows open (I'm assuming they haven't got rid of this rule, as it isn't mentioned in their list of covid measures). 

I don't recall having to keep windows open when we've used the shuttle before. I don't see a reason for the rule and our windows will be tightly shut when we go in September. If we do. I can't see them trying to enforce that and don't see how they could if we're locked into our van. 

I seem to remember the guy that parks you tells you.....1st gear, handbrake on, windows part way down......but as you say, once he's moved on, windows tightly shut!  

Is it so you could hear a tannoy in case of emergency?

I think it was only advisory to keep the windows part down. Everyone has to stay in the car now so the risk seems pretty low on the actual train anyway.

When I asked one of the Eurotunnel guys walking through the train he said it was due to changes in air pressure as they went in and out of the tunnel.

Don't know if it's true but that's what he told me.

I can certainly feel the pressure changes in my ears as you go through the tunnel. Always assumed that the open windows policy was to hear the tannoy for announcements.

Personally id be happy using the tunnel. You are confined to your own vehicle so no touch points to worry about and social distancing is guaranteed. Issues regarding recirculating air is a fair point, but compared to pretty much and other form of shared transport... I've only ever travelled in their double height carriages, but its a big volume of air and will get flushed through after each crossing when the doors open at both ends as vehicles unload/load. 

Clear analysis there, I think.

When you compare with a ferry I think there's no contest. Getting down those narrow staircases to reclaim your car doesn't bear thinking about. Social distancing on a ferry goes out of the window (or would if there were a window). I know you can spend most of the journey on deck but even then I'd want to be upwind of everyone else.

Which all goes to explain why the tunnel is practically booked up for August!